


dreams are dreams

by simonbananaao3



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Demons, Dreams and Nightmares, Horror, M/M, Psychological Horror, Sleep, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 16:35:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11740938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simonbananaao3/pseuds/simonbananaao3
Summary: tyler can't sleep; he has insomnia.but little does he know it's something more sinister that keeps him awake at night.





	dreams are dreams

The soft rumble of thunder in the distance kept him awake that night. At least that’s what he blamed his lack of sleep on. 

Tyler always had problems sleeping. He could lie awake for hours, screaming at himself to just go to sleep, but he never would. He stayed up for days at a time; his record was four days straight. 

When he did sleep, however, he slept for two hours at most. 

Every night was the same dream. 

It was the same dream that terrified him and made him quake with fear. He never told anyone what the dream was. He didn’t tell anyone except for Josh. 

Josh was always there.

Tyler’s mother always said that it’s easy to be friends with someone when they’re happy. Whether Tyler was laughing his ass off or holding a gun to his head, Josh was always there to make him come back to reality. 

Josh always tried to make sure that Tyler was content with his life. He would always do small things such as make breakfast for him or write him little notes. 

Sometimes when things got real bad, Josh would stay awake with Tyler as long as he could, telling him stories about how the moon was in love with the sun. 

Tyler liked those stories. He liked them a lot.

Tyler was a good man. He was nice. He gave to charity. He went to church when he could. 

He also had a dark side like anyone. He didn’t feel bad about it. He believed that every person had a dark side. Some people were just brave enough to show it. 

He thought it was funny how as soon as you showed your dark side to people, they instantly saw you as the outcast when in reality, everyone’s dark. 

They were on a bus together. It was just the two of them and the driver. They were heading home to Ohio so that they could see their families for the holidays. 

Tyler liked this time of the year. He loved autumn and winter. He loved all of the holidays and presents and hot cocoa, but he loved Josh the most.   
“Are you awake?” Tyler said to the figure sitting across from him.

“I am now,” he said, opening his eyes. 

“I’m sorry. You can sleep if you want,” Tyler said, guilt filling his head.

“I’d rather talk to you,” he said. Tyler grinned internally. 

“I had that dream again,” Tyler confessed.

“So you slept?”

“I wouldn’t call it sleeping.”

“What would you call it?”

“I don’t know. Something bad.”

There was a pause. Tyler stared at the ground. He could feel Josh looking at him. 

“Where was I this time?” Josh asked, breaking the silence.

“The ocean.”

“Oh. You’ve had that one before, right?”

“That was a river. This was a huge ocean. It was a bad one.”

“Dreams are dreams, Tyler,” Josh said, trying to reassure him.

“I know,” Tyler said, looking at his phone. It was 2:23 in the morning. There was another long pause between them. The silence was occasionally interrupted by sniffs and shoes moving on the floor. 

“I love you,” Tyler said softly.

“I love you too.”

Both of them drifted to sleep. Surprisingly, Tyler managed to sleep for some time. He found it was easier to sleep when he was with Josh. 

He still dreamed that dream. 

This time it was in a forest. Josh’s mangled body was on the forest floor. The investigators crowded around his corpse, taking photos, writing notes, examining him. 

Tyler watched all of this. He cried aloud into the trees. His throat was aching from his screams. 

Tyler calmed himself and listened to the police. 

“Multiple stab wounds all over the body. Definitely a sense of anger due to how many stab wounds there are. The coroner counted seventy-six entry points from a six-inch knife.”

Tyler couldn’t bear to hear any more. He was crying. He felt the tears roll down his cheeks and down his neck until they dripped off of his body. He looked down, looking at the tears on the ground. 

He saw his hands, bloody. His right hand, holding a six-inch kitchen knife. His left hand holding a note. It read:

You wanted to kill him, so you did. You wanted to die, so you did.

He looked up and saw the rotting skeleton of Josh Dun standing there, blood still oozing from his disfigured frame. He had a horrifying grin.

“Why did you kill me, Tyler?” he said. The corpse of Josh Dun raised his arm, holding a gun. 

“I was your best friend, Tyler. Look what you’ve done to me.” 

Tyler was crying again now. He couldn’t move. 

“But I’ll still be with you, every step of the way. Every time you think I’m gone, I’ll always be back. I’ll always be waiting. Watching and waiting.”

Tyler was screaming now. No one could hear him, not even Josh. 

Josh pointed the gun at Tyler and fired it. Tyler felt the bullet pierce his skin, break his bones, and pass right through his static heart. Pain washed over him like boiling water. 

Tyler’s mouth filled with blood as he fell to the ground. He saw Josh’s remains aim the gun at his own head. 

“See you soon, Tyler,” was the last thing he said before Tyler woke up screaming. 

Josh jolted awake. Tyler was crying. 

“Tyler! Are you okay? What happened?” Josh said as he got up and sat next to Tyler. It was instinct at this point for Tyler to cry into Josh’s shoulder. 

Josh traced circles on Tyler’s back, doing anything and everything he could to calm him down. Tyler managed to control his tears so that he could speak.

“You came back. You came back to kill me and you’ve never done that before,” Tyler said in between sobs. 

“Hey, it’s okay, Ty. It’s just a dream. You know I would never do that, and I know you would never do that to me. We’re not that fucked up.”

Tyler looked up at Josh, tears still stinging his eyes. He couldn’t see Josh in the dark, but he knew that he was there and that he always would be.

“What if I am that fucked up, Josh?” Tyler asks, begging for peace.

“Don’t say that. Your mind is beautiful.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“Of course it is. I fall in love with it every day.”

Tyler didn’t respond. He couldn’t figure out what he did to deserve someone like Josh in his life. 

The remained silent for the rest of the night. Josh slept peacefully next to Tyler, who couldn’t sleep for his life. 

\- 

They arrived at their next stop at about seven in the morning. They got a hotel room for the night and spent the rest of the day exploring wherever the hell they were. Both of them had lost track at this point. 

The day went by quickly. It was night before they realized and they were back in the hotel preparing to go to bed. Josh was tired and his eyelids were visibly heavy. 

Tyler, on the other hand, feared the idea of sleeping. He didn’t want to see Josh get hurt again, and he definitely didn’t want to be responsible for it. 

“You need to sleep, Ty,” Josh said, a concerned tone in his voice. 

“You know I can’t,” Tyler responded, looking out the window. 

He saw his own reflection. His eyes were red from the lack of sleep. He also saw Josh staring at him, a worried look on his face. 

Someone else was with them in the room. He saw them in the reflection. He saw their bright red eyes, blood dripping from their mouth. They stared at Tyler, directly into his eyes. Tyler couldn’t look away from their gaze as he felt his heart rate increase.

Tyler turned around quickly.

Nothing. 

Tyler only saw Josh, who grew more troubled with every passing moment.

“Are you okay, Ty?” 

Tyler could barely speak.

“I’m okay,” he said, lying through his teeth. 

That night, Tyler and Josh slept in the same bed. Josh felt like he couldn’t keep Tyler safe unless he was with him.

It was one in the morning. Josh was sleeping peacefully, his breath entering and leaving his lungs effortlessly. 

Tyler was wide awake, staring into the void above him. 

He heard the clock ticking. He felt his heart, beating at a steady pace.

He marveled at the fact that he was still alive. He felt like he should have been dead a long time ago. He thought about death a lot. 

Out of nowhere, Tyler felt his eyelids becoming heavier. He fell asleep quick.

Tyler was alone. 

He was in a forest. 

There was no body, no police.

He only had the forest surrounding him. 

He looked around, and he saw that there was a revolver on the ground.

He bent down to pick it up. The safety was on. There was only one bullet.

“You know what to do.”

Tyler jumped at the sudden sound of Josh’s voice. Josh was standing in front of him. He was completely fine. He was smiling that same smile that made Tyler’s knees weak.

“Do what?”

Josh’s expression didn’t change.

“Kill me, Tyler. Shoot me in the heart.”

Tyler felt his blood run cold. His heart almost stopped beating. 

“What? I can’t do that! I love you!” Tyler was shouting. 

“But you can,” said someone else. Tyler felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Josh’s decaying corpse. 

Tyler screamed and tried to run, but he couldn’t move.

All he could do was scream and shout and cry. 

“Why do I deserve this? What did I do wrong? I love you, Josh!”

There was no response from either of them.

“Answer me, motherfuckers!” Tyler shouted, growing angrier. 

“Kill him, Tyler,” the monster said. 

“Fuck you,” Tyler said, staring into its eyes. 

“As long as he lives, you will never be free.”

Tyler looked at Josh, still smiling as if nothing was wrong. Tyler would never hurt Josh. He would rather live with these nightmares for the rest of his life as long as it meant that Josh was happy and healthy. 

Tyler was still holding the weapon. He looked at Josh and then back at the demon. 

“I’m not doing it.”

“Then I will forever plague your existence,” it said.

“No you won’t,” Tyler said.

Tyler pointed the gun at his own head

and fired.

**Author's Note:**

> my first attempt at horror. hope you enjoyed!


End file.
